Leaving home for Macquarie

The great reputation and flexibility of the variety of units on offer, led Martin Dieste to relocate from Germany to study our Master of International Business.

"After starting to work full-time following my bachelor's degree I got the feeling that some doors within my career just wouldn't open without a Masters degree," explains Dieste. "I looked at all my options for postgraduate study and as I really wanted to gather some intercultural experiences, going abroad was my final choice."

Dieste's bachelor's degree was in international management but he was keen to expand his knowledge in areas such as international trade, finance, accounting and marketing.

"For me it was important that the curriculum was not entirely fixed as I wanted to specialise in certain areas, in particular supply chain. As 1 gets to choose 4 electives besides having to take 4 core units, this program was a perfect match."

In his first semester, Dieste was able to study electives related to supply chain and in his second semester he chose to undertake a research project following on from work he conducted during his bachelor's degree.

Studying subjects that suit his interests hasn't been the only highlight of Dieste's time at Macquarie: "A frequently on-going highlight is meeting heaps of new people from all around the world. For me, it is always a pleasure to meet new people with different backgrounds and experiences, yet similar interests. For networking purposes this year has been great so far!"

An academic highlight for Dieste was the release of his semester one results. "I was pretty nervous as I couldn't tell whether I did good or bad in the final exams," he says. "Fortunately everything turned out to be good in the end!"

Dieste is currently working on a part-time basis as operations manager at Siemens Enterprise Communications in Sydney and is looking to the future.

He has already applied for jobs in both Australia and Germany. "I'd really like to work in sales or supply chain in the future but after finishing my masters there are more options for sure!"